Rural Belize Villages Tour

Tour of rural Belizean life in the twin towns of Mango Creek and Independence.

From my cruise today, I took a 40 minute ferry ride from Harvest Caye, a private resort island, to the Malacate pier on the mainland of Belize. We saw typical sites such as houses built on stilts, churches, schools, markets, a Big Creek Port where fruit, sugar, rice, bean, and oil are exported, and even the comfortable home (built in the early 1940s) of a local Village pioneer who raised his family here. Agriculture is the leading industry and tourism continues to grow. Six ethnic groups live in Belize. The men eat iguana eggs as an aphrodisiac. The people and the towns were charming and the scenery on the ferry ride was spectacular.

New Year’s Eve on my holiday cruise 2021

 New Year’s Eve on my holiday cruise.🎊🎆🎶‼️

There will be several lively celebrations in numerous venues, throughout the festively decorated ship. The biggest celebrations with live music and dancing will take place poolside, in the spinnaker lounge or in the summer palace dining room. There will also be dancing and live music playing in the magnums lounge and a traditional countdown in the atrium. A separate Latin New Year’s celebration will be held at the great outdoors and traditional New Year’s grapes will even be served. At 9:30 PM, they will hand out New Year’s party favors in venues throughout the ship! I look forward to saying goodbye to 2021 and feel hopeful that 2022 will finally bring more normalcy to the world. #WeAreInThisTogether!!

Covid Cruise Christmas and New Year’s 2021

 So far, we have been very lucky on our 11-day Christmas and New Year’s cruise. We have stopped in all scheduled ports. I I am happy I will avoid airports and airplanes and only take an Uber home.😎🎄🎊#CovidCruise

The Panama Canal. The fourth time is a charm

 The Panama  canal was one of the most gargantuan and ambitious engineering feats in world history— based on the vision and determination of a few strong personalities— none of them were Colombian or Panamanian!!

The results of this impressive technological endeavor was that it streamlined East-west travel, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean , from three weeks down to only 12 hours. 

The story is replete with monumental engineering marvels, uncompromisingly treacherous geological and weather conditions, savvy politics, colorful persuasive characters, France versus the US, failure on an epic scale, the largest bankruptcy in history, a deadly mysterious illness, colossal loss of life (30,000+), a silent bloodless coup, massive funding, immense corruption, sleazy creation of a new country, two oceans, full-blown Jim Crow protocols (even paying black workers significantly lower salaries in inferior currency), a misleading postage stamp, first US presidential visit to another country, stupendous egos, broad scale media spectacle, a choice between Nicaragua and Columbia, a choice between sea level and lock -style canal, and even a misnomer of a white hat. (The Panama hat is not from Panama; it’s from Ecuador.)

The most expensive transit was more than $1 million for a large ship and the least expensive transit was for a swimmer who paid $.36.

Panama city is the only city in the world where the sun rises in the pacific ocean and the sun sets in the Atlantic Ocean.

For more information,  the two following documentaries:

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama. (read that backwards please!)

The history channel’s “the engineering that built the world episode number 4. The Panama Canal.” It originally aired October 31, 2021 and is available online including via YouTube.

Cartagena Colombia Christmas cruise 2021

 Cartagena Colombia.

This is my third visit to Cartagena, Columbia, a historically significant city, with a rich history, founded in 1533, by the Spanish Crown. Importantly it served as Spain’s center of trade, its treasury hub, and its American base for the slave trade. Cartagena was protected by seven fortresses and known for its gold and emerald mining. It’s charming old town with its maze of cobbled  alleys, bougainvillea-covered  balconies, picturesque parks, colonial plazas, and massive churches, is a UNESCO world heritage site. Cartagena is a walled city with a monumental fort that continues to be the most outstanding feet of Spanish military engineering in the New World. Today,  I visited the old town, the fort, the Navy Museum, the Cathedral,  the home of the former president where the constitution was created in 1886, and a former neighborhood containing dungeons and ramparts where troops stored provisions. I also visited the Palace of Inquisition (The Catholic church never recognized anyone’s innocence), and Saint Peter Claver, cloister and monastery built in homage to the protector of slaves. The palace of inquisition museum contained replicas of torture devices used to force residents to convert to Catholicism. They either converted or were killed, many via guillotine.

Although I have taken this tour in the past, I never tire of hearing about the city’s rich history.